This invention relates to prevention of oil spillage due to accidental rupture of a tank or tanks of a vessel. With the advent of supertankers, a single incident can cause significant damage to environments and disrupt ecological balance as well as cause substantial economic loss. The recent accident of EXXON VALDEZ is perhaps the worst oil spillage disaster in U.S. history and leaked about 240,000 barrels, i.e., over 10 million gallons of oil. The economic and environmental damage is estimated to have been over one billion dollars. Three weeks after the EXXON VALDEZ accident an Indian tanker spilled about a million gallons of oil in the vicinity of Saudi Arabia. Another example of recent supertanker accident is the case of the Stuyvesant, whose hull cracked from battling the heavy seas with a discharge of 600,000 gallons.
Previous efforts to control damage have been principally limited to `containment and dispersement` of the spilled oil from the ruptured tanker. Although some emphasis has been made on naval architectural solutions to limit the damage from oil spills--such as by making a double bottom, by employing a compartmented design, and by structural strengthening to prevent cracking of the hull limited resources have been directed to prevent the oil spillage once the rupture occurs. This invention addresses the need to prevent the oil from spilling from a ruptured tank of a vessel.